Favorite Photos of 2009

Since the year’s coming to an end, I thought I’d reflect again on what I’ve learned about photography in the year 2009, and share a few of my favorite shots with the stories behind them. This first set is photos I took from January to June.

In January, my Fuji point and shoot finally died, so I took a break and started saving my pennies for a DSLR. I wanted an Olympus E-520, because of the in-camera image stabilization. My biggest complain with the Fuji was that I had no control over shutter speed, which ruined a lot of photos over the years. Built-in IS would go one step further towards eliminating blurry photos without buying expensive IS lenses.

I ended up buying a Canon Rebel XSi. I have friends who already shoot Canon, so I figured the ability to borrow equipment would make up for the slightly higher cost. I think it was a good decision. The XSi is a solid camera except for the mode dial, which is way too easy to bump. Several times this year I lost a shot because I had somehow nudged the camera from Aperture Priority mode into Manual or the strange and useless A-DEP mode.

I got to travel quite a bit in early 2009. I went to Minneapolis and New York for work, saw my parents in Florida, and took a road trip to Toronto. Back at home, the town where I live flooded and my photos got hundreds of hits in 24 hours. I also became a Toledo Zoo member this year, so I took the chance to visit many other zoos on the cheap and practice with my telephoto.